Audio

Holocaust Survivor Oral History Project

On this page are audio file transfers from cassette recordings of Holocaust survivors and American Concentration camp liberators with connections to Minnesota. These audio interviews were created during the early 1980s through the Twin Cities Holocaust Survivors' Interview Project. Some of this material became the basis for the book Witnesses to the Holocaust: An Oral History edited by Rhoda Lewin. This collection was compiled by Brad Belbas.

For more information on this collection please contact CHGS at chgs@umn.edu.

Henry AbramowiczHenry's father owned a large shoe company and was vice president of the Jewish businessmen's association in the Polish city of Lodz. Henry was 9 years old when Poland surrendered to the Germans in 1939. By bribing border guards, the Abramowicz family escaped to Russia.

Sam AckosSam Ackos, from Athens, Greece,Â was 12 years old when his father was taken away by the Germans in 1944. Then he became the head of the family. He worked by shining the shoes of members of the Wehrmacht and trading items on the black market in order to provide food for his mother and four sisters. His father died in Buchenwald.

Sam Bankhalter Survivor of the Holocaust from Lodz, Poland. His father was a manufacturer of prefabricated wooden houses, a Hebrew scholar, and an ardent Zionist who wanted to go to Palestine before the war. Sam was running an errand for his father when he was caught and sent to Auschwitz.

Felicia BrohNative of Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), grew up in Berlin and married Max Broh, a metals dealer. After Kristallnacht, November 9/10, 1938, they sought to escape Germany but did not have sufficient funds to pay bribes for visas. Most of her family and her husband's family died in concentration camps.

Richard DarrRichard Darr was drafted into the American army in September 1942. As a squad leader in the 260th Infantry Regiment, he saw active combat in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria. After the war, he worked as a military governor in Bavaria. Later, he received a Ph.D in economics and was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Darr died in the mid-1990s.

Donald DeanWitness to Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Dean graduated high school in 1929 and enlisted in the US Army in 1942. He describes conditions at the liberation of Mauthausen, near Linz, Austria in April 1945.

David EigerSurvivor of the Radom Ghetto. Eiger studied business at a Polish Catholic high school, graduated at age 16, and was entering college when Poland was invaded in September 1939. He survived the ghetto and Auschwitz. His sister's testimony is also on this web site under theÂ name Dora Zaidenweber, as well as her husband's, Jules Zaidenweber. Eiger came to the USA in 1949, died in the early 1990s.

David EigerSurvivor from Radom, Poland, Auschwitz and Dachau. His sister, Dora Zaidenweber, and brother-in-law, Jules Zaidenweber, are also the subject of audios in this section. Interviewed by Jane Katz, February 22, 1984.

Paulette Weill FinkHer father had been a spy for France during World War I. She and her husband, a businessman, joined the French Resistance after Spring 1940. He was caught, tortured and killed by the Gestapo in Paris.

Plenary speech by Dr. Henry Friedlander, Brooklyn CollegeHolocaust Conference, October 9-11, 1977, Courtesy of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, speaking on the development of Holocaust memory and the writing of history since 1945. "Teaching what to whom and why?" Friedlander talks about the many problems about lack of sufficient expertise among those telling the story as well as exploitation by some in the film industry. He expresses fears about the Holocaust becoming a media fad. He likens the Holocaust as an event on the scale as the fall of the Roman Empire. For information about the speaker see:IDEA Journal

Edward GrossmanGrossman was from Medzilaborce, Czechoslovakia, was 17 when the war began in 1939. He was drafted into the Slovak army, serving 1941 - 1943. The Slovaks discharged all Jews from the army in 1943 and Grossman and others were sent to Auschwitz, where he arrived on November 1, 1944. He was liberated near Dachau on April 27, 1945.

Charlotte HirschCharlotte Czitron Hirsch was 18 years old when World War II began and lived in Tirgu-Mures, Transylvania, Romania, also called Marosvararhely in Hungarian. At Auschwitz, she was selected by Dr. Jozef Mengele for slave labor, while her mother and father were sent to the gas chambers.

Center for Bioethics Conference on Medical Ethicsand the HolocaustComplete audio taped proceedings from the Center for Bioethics Conference on "Medical Ethics and the Holocaust,"Â May 17-19, 1989. Convened by Professor Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics, University of MinnesotaÂ (now at University of Pennsylvania). Note:All files are in mp3 format.

David JagodaDavid Jagoda was from a small town in Poland and was sent to Plaszow and Mauthausen, while his parents died at Auschwitz. Jagoda knew Oskar Schindler and repaired his Mercedes automobile, although he was not on Schindler's List. Jagoda died in 2003.

Arthur JohnsonAmerican camp liberator from Minnesota who graduated college in June 1941, was drafted into the army in October that year and landed in Normandy 12 days after D-Day. He was a liberator of Buchenwald Concentration camp, near Weimar.

Dr. Herbert JonasRecorded May 6, 1983. Born in Dusseldorf, Germany, recounts theÂ losses in his family who stayed in Germany. Left Germany in June 1934. Discusses anti-semitism in Germany as experienced as a schoolboy before leaving.

William KammanAmerican camp liberator was drafted in 1943 at age 19 into the American Army, and served in a reconsissance unit for the 101st Airborne Unit. He was in a group that liberated Dachau but chose not to go into the camp.

Felix KaminskyFelix Kaminsky was from Sendjeszow, Poland and was drafted into the Polish army in 1939. He was a slave laborer at the airport near Krakow, Poland and was assigned to work for Oskar Schindler. He was saved because his name was on Schindler's List.

Hinda KibortHinda Danziger Kibort was a native of Saulai (Shavel), Lithuania and was attending college in Kovno (Kaunas) when Lithuania was first taken over by the Soviet Union and then invaded by Nazi Germany. She survived several ghettos, Stutthof Concentration Camp, and a machine gun massacre of 96 women where there were 10 survivors. Kibort died in 2003.

Manfred H. KleinManfred H. Klein was from Posen, originally German Empire (Poland before 1772) that became part of Poland in 1918. The Klein family moved to Breslau, Germany. Manfred was arrested in 1938 and survived Buchenwald.

Gisela KonopkaGisela Piper Konopka was a college student in 1933 when the Nazis came to power in Germany. She joined the underground anti-fascist movement, escaped to France and in 1941 to the USA. She became an internationally known researcher in adolescent psychology and has a center named after her at the University of Minnesota. Konopka died in December 2003.

William Landgren (interviewed Jan 26, 1987)Bill Landgren was drafted at age 25, arrived in Europe in 1943 with the 45th Division's assault at Anzion (Italy). He was in combat for 511 days in Italy, France and Germany. He was a liberator of Dachau, outside of Munich.

Berek Latarus (interviewed 10/27/82)A native of Lodz, Poland worked with his father in the lumber business after graduating high school. He was deported from the Lodz Ghetto to Auschwitz and was the only survivor from his family.

Kurt Loewenthal (interviewed 2/21/83) Kurt Loewenthal was from Gelsenkirchen, Germany, a prosperous candy wholesaler when the Aryan laws forced him out of business. He fled to Belgium, then France. His parents, two brothers and a sister were killed by the Germans. He returned to Germany after the war and immigrated to the US in 1951.

James Loewenson (12/26/84)Born in Posen and moved with his family to Berlin after World War I. His father committed suicide in 1933. James was involved with socialist parties, escaped to Prague, then Switzerland, was expelled by the Swiss to France, was then on the run from country to country until the end of the war.

Mark Mandel (interviewed July 31, 1984)Mark Mandel (Mandelbaum) was from Warsaw, Poland and was 9 years old when the war began in 1939. To survive, he and his sisters became "black marketeers," for lack of a better description, in order to survive. After the Holocaust, he went to Israel and fought in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence.

Allen Mastbaum (interviewed 4/3/83) Born in Dubienka, Poland. He was sent to the Belzec death camp as a slave laborer. While being transferred to Sobibor, he and hundreds of prisoners broke out of the train box cars and tried to escape. Most were shot. Mastbaum survived and hid in a bunker for two years. After liberation he went to Woldenburg, under Soviet occupation. A witness to post-war Polish anti-semitic violence, he and his wife fled to the west and wound up in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Helen Mastbaum (interviewed 4/3/83) Born Hinda Kornweitz in Skalat, Poland, worked for the German occupation forced as a tailor's assistant. After the elimination of the Skalat Ghetto in 1943, she hid in the woods with other refugees until liberated by the Soviet forces in 1944.

Edmund Motyko (interviewed 4/20/82)Raised in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, he joined the National Guard in June 1940. Ed fought with the 102nd Division in Holland, Belgium and Germany. In April 1945 he was a liberator of Gardelegen.

Rose Meyerhoff (interviewed 6/28/83)Rose Jacobowitz Meyerhoff was 7 years old when the German army occupied her native town of Brussels, Belgium in 1940. Her mother was arrested and Rose was taken by a neighbor and hidden in a Catholic convent. Her parents did not survive. She came to the US in 1947 and was adopted by her mother's only brother in New York.

Leonard Parker (interviewed March 10, 1987)American, enlisted in the US army at age 19. He and his squad were liberators of Dachau. Parker spoke Yiddish, so he could speak to the prisoners at Dachau about their experiences.

Ben Rosensweig (interviewed Jan 29, 1982)Ben Rosensweig was from Szuzkoczyn, Poland. He left his village to apprentice as a tailor, and at age 15 went to work in Katowice. He survived Buchenwald and Theresienstadt Concentration Camps.

Max Schwartz (interviewed 9/11/82)Max Schwartz was from Krosniewice, Poland and was taken to a labor camp in Goldau in 1941, then to Wanenhaim and Auschwitz, where his number was 141597. He was transferred to Schweintochlowitz, then Auscwhitz-Monowitz (Buna) and finally to Buchenwald, where he was liberated by American forces.

"Thanks To Scandinavia" is an educational fund recognizing the courage and decency of those who protected their Jewish neighbors during World War II.

Part 1 - Richard Netter, Thanks to Scandinavia Foundation (NY).
Reflections on scholarship about Scandinavia and the Holocaust. Professor David Cooperman (Sociology), President Nils Hasselmo, University of Minnesota (welcome)

Part 2 - David Cooperman continues along some logistics about the conference.

Part 3 - O'Rourke continued; Jansen, Swedish Consul General in Chicago. Professor Yehuda Bauer, Hebrew University. Distorting the Proportions: The Issue of Victimization and Rescue of Scandinavian Jews and other Jews during the Holocaust.

Part 5 - Professor Erik Allardt. Minority-Majority Relations, Territorial Descent, the Welfare State and the Jewish Question in Scandinavia. Commentary by Professor Matti E. Kaups, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Part 6 - This is a continuation of Part 5 (By Professor Erik Allardt).

Part 7 - Introduction David Cooperman. Professor Leni Yahil, Hebrew University. Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz and the Obstruction of the Deportation and Consequent Rescue of the Danish Jews.

Part 8 - Samuel Abrahamson.Police Complicity in The Extermination of Norway'ss Jews/Altruism in the Rescue of Norway's Jews in Sweden.

Part 10 - Hanno Rautkaullio. "Finland's Unique Situation: Allies of the Germans and Protectors of the Jews."

Part 11, Part 12, and Part 13 - Panel Discussion: Chair: Borje Vahamaki (University of Minnesota); Professor Stephen Feinstein (University of Wisconsin-River Falls and University of Minnesota)(some microphone problems here). Some reflections about Scandinavian in light of ideas of Helen Fein and Nechama Tec. Abrahamson brings up issue of obedience to authority with the Norwegian police as opposed to the Danes. Yahil asserts that not everything is known about the Danish police response. Respondents and questions from the floor.

Part 14 and Part 15 - Professor Cooperman discusses the 58 variables in Helen Fein's analysis of the Holocaust. Rhoda Lewin, Editor of Witnesses of the Holocaust, introduces Reder Dittmann (Professor of Art History, St. Olaf College, MN), and Jewish survivors Fred Baron (Vienna) and Judy Baron (Hungary) , Julius and Nusia Ancer (Poland), Seva Scheer (Poland) and Rosa Nissenholz (Poland), all of whom arrived in Sweden after the war.

Part 16 - Panel of Holocaust Survivors who wound up in Sweden: Fred and Judy Baron

Part 17 - Professor Richard Breitman (U.S. Holocaust Museum as editor-in-chief of Holocaust and Genocide Studies). The American Role in Scandinavia.

Part 18 - Professor Franklin Littell (Temple University and Richard Stockton College).Christendom and the Holocaust: The Duty of Christians to Resist Immoral Regimes.

Part 19 - Questions to Professor Littell from the floor. and Inga Gottfarb (Sweden, Political Advisor to the Liberal Party and Social Democrats in Sweden). Pre and Postwar Swedish refugee policy, absorption of refugees and the politics of Forgetting.

Jerome Witkin - Site and InsightFamed contemporary artist who teaches at Syracuse University and has painted large works based on stories of the Holocaust. Witkin often works with aspects of the grotesque in order to understand the enormity of the Holocaust. Courtesy of Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles. One of Witkin's works is based on the story of Dorothy Wahlstrom, US Army Nurse from Minnesota. For links see:Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Jack Rutber Fine Arts - Jerome Witkin Portfolios The Syracuse New Times

The Naftalin Panel, Temple Israel, April 27, 1986, Minneapolis, MN.A discussion at Temple Israel Synagogue as a response to the first showing of Claude Lanzmann's film, SHOAH. Host: Larry Gibson, president of the JCRC-ADL. Panelists: Arthur Naftalin, professor of political science at University of Minnesota and former mayor of Minneapolis; Robert Lundegard, film critic for the Minneapolis Tribune; Henry Oertelt, survivor from Berlin; Rabbi Stephen Pinsky, Temple Israel; Gary Gilson, WCCO-TV; Hinda Kibort, survivor from Lithuania.
Parts 2a and 2b is the panel chaired by Professor David Cooperman, April 27, 1986, that continues the discussion. Al Milgrom, University Film Society; Fred Baron, Holocaust survivor from Vienna; Dr. Eugene Krieter, theologian; Don Fraser, mayor of Minneapolis and former US Congressman; Dora Zaidenweber, survivor from Radom, Poland; Felicia Weingarten, survivor from Lodz, Poland.

Sabina ZimeringSabina Zimering apeaks with Polish rescuers Danuta Trybus and Mania Spiewak. Interviewed by Rhoda Lewin. Zimering and her sister are from Piotrkow, Poland and were ultimately hidden on forged papers as Polish workers in Regensburg, Germany at tje Hotel Maximillian. Sabina's story has appeared in a book, HIDING IN THE OPEN and the story was made into a dramatic production at the GREAT AMERICAN HISTORY THEATRE in St. Paul, Minnesota, during the 2004 season.